Snap-hook.



No. 725,158. PATENTED APR. 14, 1903.

I. J. SHEPHARD.

SNAP HOOK.

APPLIOATION FILED MAY 15, 1901.

no MODEL.

In b i a; R.

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UNifnn STATES Parent Clinton,

FRANCIS J. SHEPHARD, OF CONCORD, WISCONSIN.

SNAP-HQOK.

SPECIFICATION forming part Of Letters lEatent N0. 725,158, dated April 14:, 1903.

Application filed May 15 1901. Serial No. 60,255. (No model.) I

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I FRANCIS J. SHEPHARD, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Concord, in the county of Jefferson and State of Wisconsin, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Snap-Hooks; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

My invention has for its object to provide simple economical snap-hooks for harnessstraps; and it consists in certain peculiarities of construction and combination of parts hereinafter particularly set forth with refer ence to the accompanying drawings and subsequently claimed.

Figure 1 of the drawings represents a side elevation of a snap-hook in accordance with my invention attached to a strap; and Fig. 2 a plan view of the same, partly broken away.

Referring by letter to the drawings, A 13 represent sections of my improved snap-hook made fast to each other on opposite sides of an end of a strap C by rivets b, engaging registering apertures in the sections themselves and the strap, it being practical, however, to screw-tap the apertures in the strap-opposing portion of section B and to substitute screws for the rivets.

The strap-opposing or shank portions of the snap-hook sections A B are preferably ribbed, corrugated, or otherwise irregular in a transverse direction upon their inner faces, as herein shown, to bite into the strap, whereby there is better hold of said sections on said strap and less strain can come upon the fas of the adjacent end of strap 0 may be springtempered and the remaining or shank portion otherwise. The section B is malleable-casting drop-forging steel or steel stamping, as may be found preferable in practice, and that portion thereof clear of the strap is shaped to form a hook the point of which overlaps the forward spring end of section A, above specified.

It is intended to furnish the trade with the parts herein described as constituting snaphooks in accordance with my invention, the same to be assembled on straps by the final purchasers, and in case either the spring tongue section or stifi-hook section of a snap hook becomes broken a new one can be obtained to takeits place, the substitution being easily efiected without the aid of special tools. The spring-tongue section of a snap-hook is the part most liable to fracture, and should this part of a snap-hook in accordance with my invention become broken a simple strip of spring-steel is suitable as a substitute, such material being generally at hand or easily obtained, and it may be found advantageous in practice to furnish a plurality of tongue or spring sections and extra fastening devices with one hook-section of the device.

From the foregoing it will be appreciated that the fracture of either section of my snaphook does not necessitate the loss of the other section and that one hook section will in most instances outlast several tongue or spring sections.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

A snap hook comprising a spring-tongue section, a stiff-hook section, and fastening devices engageable with registering apertures in shanks of said sections and a strap interposed between said shanks.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand, at Oconomowoc, in the county of Waukesha and State of VViscousin, in the presence of two witnesses.

FRANCIS J. SHEPHARD.

Witnesses:

JOHN A. KELLY, JESSIE S. WILSEY. 

